Food Production in India


Food Production in India

    Year

    Area

    Production

    247% growth rate

    1949-50

    99.20 m ha

    54.92 m tonnes

    1985-86

    127.06 m ha

    150.47 m tonnes

    2000-01


    220 m tonnes

    2003-04


    240 m tonnes

    So the nation became almost self sufficient in food grains but the population is growing at an alarming rate of around 2.5% per year .Food production should also increase at least at same rate or even at faster rate to improve the nutritional status.
    The 25 major food crops of the world, ranked according to total tonnage produced annually

    1

    Wheat

    10

    Oat

    19

    Coconut

    2

    Rice

    11

    Sorghum

    20

    Cotton

    3

    Corn (Maize)

    12

    Sugarcane

    21

    Apple

    4

    Potato

    13

    Millets

    22

    Yam

    5

    Barley

    14

    Banana

    23

    Pea nut

    6

    Sweet potato

    15

    Tomato

    24

    Watermelon

    7

    Cassava

    16

    Sugar beet

    25

    Cabbage

    8

    Grape

    17

    Rye



    9

    Soybean

    18

    Orange



    It could be possible because of

    • Improved crop varieties
    • Better management of inputs
    • Increase net cropped area

    Better environment alone cannot lead to better yields from inferior varieties beyond a certain limit. The limit is set by the genetic makeup of the variety.
    Eg: Tall wheat varieties give response upto 60 kg/ ha, Dwarf wheat varieties give increase yield of120 kg/ ha

    • Hence, genetic makeup of plants permits considerably endless favorable changes.
    • This continuous favorable change in the genotype of crop varieties is a must for increasing yields.
    • So plant breeding deals with the principles and the methods required forfavorably changing thegenetic constitution of crop plants.

Last modified: Friday, 22 June 2012, 12:49 PM